How Can Small Satellites be used to Support Orbital Debris Removal Goals Instead of Increasing the Problem

Orbital debris is a serious concern for the NASA, DARPA, Air Force organizations and the commercial space industry. Since 2005, the space debris environment has been unstable and began a collision cascade effect per NASA. A recent International Orbital Debris Conference focused on the need to find solutions for Orbital Debris Removal and manage any space debris increase potential. The purpose of this paper is to explore what orbital debris issues can be address by Small Satellites. The paper will discuss a technology supported by Small Satellites to resolve the Orbital Debris problem. It will concentrate on mitigation of debris sizes from 1cm to 10cm, which are unable to be tracked by current ground systems capabilities but can cause serious damage or destroy spacecraft. Requirements will be for the LEO orbit, where there are known significant numbers of debris of this size. A Method will be proposed, by which a small spacecraft can be used to sweep volumes of specific orbits to remove or collect debris.